When Naima Te Maile Fifita stood before an international court to make a plea for help in the face of climate change, she evoked images of motherhood and connection.
The lawyer and Tuvalu national was one of several Pacific Islanders and Caribbean representatives to make their case this week before the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany – sometimes called the Oceans Court.
The case was brought by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS).
It is not seeking a new law, but rather is calling for the court to issue an “advisory opinion” to clarify states’ obligations to preserve and protect the marine environment.
Pacific leaders said they were sick of “empty promises” and want legally binding obligations clearly spelled out for major polluters.
“For highly vulnerable small island states, the concept of time has a completely different meaning. It spells doom, and the end of their existence,” Ms Fifita said.
It has been estimated that oceans absorb around a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions and capture 90 per cent of the heat from those emissions.
However, research from the University of Auckland suggests Tuvalu’s land mass increased by almost 3 per cent over four decades to 2014.
Some smaller, uninhabited islands in Tuvalu have shrunk, but others had grown due to sediment, corals and other debris being washed ashore.
The same study reported that the seas around Tuvalu rose by just under 4 millimetres each year between 1971 and 2014 — about twice the global average over that period.
Most countries have ratified the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, which includes an obligation to protect the marine environment, but it makes no mention of greenhouse gases, emissions or climate change.
The landmark case is being seen as a test case, with small island leaders calling on the court to clarify existing laws.